FG plans major reforms in Civil Defence, Prisons – Media Report

The Federal Government is set to unveil far-reaching reforms in the agencies supervised by the Ministry of Interior.

Targeted are the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Nigerian Prisons Service.

The reforms, it was gathered, are geared towards making the institutions provide better service and achieve the set objectives for their establishment.

According to a media report, this was disclosed at the weekend that President Muhammadu Buhari had taken a series of briefs from the Interior Minister, Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Danbazzau (Rtd), in relation to the needed reforms in the institutions.

The President, it was gathered, has now decided to work more closely with the minister in achieving the objectives of the affected institutions.

Sources at the Presidential Villa and the Interior Ministry, according to the report, disclosed that the minister, being a retired military officer, was particularly worried that the NSCDC, especially its armed squad, was being used for activities beyond its mandate.

According to a source close to the Ministry of Interior, the minister had severally complained about the rampant use of NSCDC armed squad as aides to politicians.

The squad was established to protect critical national infrastructure.

The job of security aides had always been the duty of the police who even established a Special Protection Squad from which security aides are drawn.

The minister, it was gathered, had made presentations to President Buhari on the issue seeking to ensure that the armed squad was reversed to its initial mandate of protecting national infrastructure, instead of working as security aides to individuals.

The Ministry of Interior, it was said, had packaged a reform plan for the Nigerian Prisons Service as well, with a view to ensuring that the institution meets the global standard of practice.

The source, speaking further, said that the Nigerian prisons system was beset with several challenges.

“Nigerian Prisons have infrastructure deficit, and it’s a known fact.

“Most of the prisons are overcrowded with attendant effect on the prisoners and even the prison officials who are pushed to breaking point in ensuring orderliness in the prisons across the country.

“We have challenges with issues bordering on treatment and rehabilitation of prisoners, while the opportunity of accused persons to have access to justice is a challenge as well.

“One of the biggest challenges of the prisons service is the high rate of ‘awaiting trial’ detainees who outnumber actual convicts.

“At any point in time, you can hardly find more than 30 percent of inmates as convicts, the rest are awaiting trial detainees.

“This is a challenge that the minister has committed himself to ending at all cost.

“The government has tried to improve the infrastructure in the prisons to acceptable minimum standard as set by the United Nations, but the government, we learnt, has promised to do more so that the prisons in this country can really be fit for its correctional duties and not remain a place where mere punishments are meted out to people through terrible incarceration.”

An assistant director in the ministry who insisted on speaking anonymously confirmed that the Federal Government was worried over overcrowding in the prisons.

“The Federal Government is bringing the judiciary and police into the reform because the overcrowding in the prisons across the country is an eyesore.

“The biggest problem has always been the police and the judiciary who have, through acts of commission or omission, kept some persons on the awaiting trial list for about 15 years or more in some circumstances.

“It has also been established that the refusal of state governors to sign the death warrant of people on death row have also contributed to the challenges of the prisons.

“The minister is said to be working on how to ensure that the government takes a second look at the issues of people on death row for up to 25 years and ensure they are freed as a way of ensuring that the emotional trauma of those who daily expect to be executed are removed.

“If the proposal by the minister is accepted, most prisoners who are sick, but have very little time to spend in serving out their terms, will be released to their families so as to create more space in the prison and decongest it,” the source said.

A source, who confirmed the issue relating to the NSCDC, said with conviction that the government will stop the act of the NSCDC men acting as aide de camp to individuals, latest by February, 2018.

It was gathered that a meeting to discuss the issue had been held between the CG NSCDC and the interior minister where the minister bared his mind on the matter and mandated the CG to look into it and ensure indiscriminate posting of their officers as security aides were put at the barest minimum before a final order to stop it would come next year.